Word: slackers
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Popular for its bristly, not-altogether-sympathetic depiction of the "slacker" generation, "Hate" stars Buddy Bradley, a rather young curmudgeon. It caught on due to Bagge's highly intelligent character observation and its counterintuitive depiction of Buddy as something of a reactionary. The world of "Hate" had at least one character everyone knew in real life. Sad to say, then, that the first "Hate Annual" makes for such a disappointment, with one notable exception...
...best animated satires--The Simpsons, South Park--are paeans to the power of stupidity. Gary and Mike are no Homer and Bart, but this Claymation-com is at least better than its premise. (Dweeb and slacker go on road trip; hilarity, rabbit squashing ensue.) The gross-out humor misses more than it hits, but the show can surprise you, as when the dim duo visit Washington and ruins the life-work of an earnest Senator, turning a pat setup on its head: the pol is betrayed by the people. It's worth seeing where this ride goes...
This idea no doubt flourishes on campus. During our years at Harvard, we go about our lives with a certain degree of assumed credibility. Common to both the driven student and the slacker is an underlying sense of self-confidence that comes from simply gaining admittance to the most prestigious university in the world. It is generally acknowledged that differences in success at college (whether in terms of GPA or otherwise) are based more on disparities in work ethic and motivation than in our abilities or intellect...
...besides Berlinger's admittedly handsome visuals, is the presence of Donovan and Leerhausen, two actors who seem to be playing characters in a cooler, scarier, and all around more clever movie than this one. Kim's astutely rendered, down-to-earth gothic gal and Jeff's laid-back techno slacker keep the lurching story afloat long after it should have sunk-it's just too bad that this uninspired sequel basically arrived D.O.A...
...over it. Hence the yuppie Green Acres premise: man (Tom Cavanagh) is cuckolded by wife, loses Manhattan law-firm job, buys bowling alley in Stuckeyville, Ohio, opens a legal practice amid the tenpins and romances his high school love (Julie Bowen). Hence too the oddball characters: the preening slacker selling Kobe beef behind the bowling-shoe counter, the doddering magician suing a rival for revealing his secrets...